Rick Santorum says corporations should be able to deny women birth control.

During an appearance on CNN’s State Of The Union on Sunday, Santorum said that
corporations that are owned by religious employers have the
constitutional right to deny their female employees birth control
coverage.
Santorum was defending Hobby Lobby in their effort to be exempt from
Obamacare’s birth control coverage mandate. The Supreme Court recently
made the decision to hear the case, even though it upheld the law last
year. According to the former GOP Presidential candidate, since the
company’s owners are Christian, they have every right to force their
religious views upon women.
But Santorum’s anti-birth control and anti-women views didn’t go
unchallenged. Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean pointed out that
forcing religious views upon employees tramples their rights. He also
correctly noted that everyone in the nation has to follow the law
because it applies to everyone. In other words, if the law only applied
to people of a certain religion, then it would be unconstitutional. But
since that’s not the reality, Hobby Lobby has no case.

DEAN: “This is one country, we all have to live by a set
of things that are passed in Washington and are agreed to by the court.”
SANTORUM: “The idea that the First Amendment stops after you walk out
of church, that it doesn’t have anything to do with how you live the
rest of your life, I don’t know very many people of faith that believes
that their religion ends with just worship. It ends in how you practice
and live that faith. And President Obama is saying, ‘No, once you step
outside that church, I get to impose my values on you, your religious
values don’t matter anymore, it’s my values that I can impose on you. I
don’t think that’s what the First Amendment stands for. And I don’t
think that’s what the court will say.”
DEAN: “It can’t enable you to force your religious views on other people.”

Rick Santorum is the poster boy for the anti-women crusade of the Republican Party.
This is just the latest attack on women by Santorum. Throughout 2012, Santorum mercilessly demonstrated his anti-women reputation. In January of that year, Santorum said that women should be forced to give birth to their rapist’s baby because it’s a gift from God. As everyone should recall, an Indiana Tea Party senate candidate named Richard Mourdock also said that rape is a way in which God gives women gifts. He was ultimately rejected in favor of the Democratic candidate.
Not even one month had gone by before Santorum falsely claimed that birth control is cheap and that women should buy their own instead of it being covered by insurance. It’s an interesting comment considering Santorum supports banning birth control outright across the country. How can women purchase their own birth control if it becomes illegal?
These are just two of the many things Rick Santorum has said that prove how destructive an card-carrying member of the Christian Right would be if one were to become President.
All women should have free access to birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
Birth control is a vital health need that is used by a great majority of women in America. Even 98% of Catholic women have used birth control at some point in their lives. Ironically, the outcry against the Obamacare birth control mandate has been spearheaded by the male leaders of the Catholic Church.
There’s a good reason why birth control is now being covered by insurance policies beyond the fact that it’s a medically necessary drug. Prior to Obamacare, women had to cover their own birth control costs, which are expensive. Meanwhile, Viagra (erections) has been covered by insurance companies for years. Why should men have their reproductive medication covered but not women? It’s unfair to deny women the opportunity to protect themselves from getting an unwanted pregnancy while approving boner pills for guys who want to have sex with them.
Birth control coverage even has a social effect that conservatives should applaud. By giving women greater and cheaper access to birth control, the number of abortions will drop because the number of unwanted pregnancies will plummet. Studies indicate that when women get free contraception, the abortion rate falls dramatically.
Rick Santorum is ridiculously obsessed with women’s bodies.
At some point, Rick Santorum and his fellow conservatives are going to have to make this connection. Republicans either want to ban birth control or reduce the number of abortions. They can’t do both. In fact, it’s impossible to do both. Banning abortion won’t stop women from having sex and it certainly won’t stop them from getting an abortion. And banning birth control would only lead to more unwanted pregnancies that lead to increased abortions. Allowing corporate bosses to deny women birth control is wrong and infringes upon the rights of employees. And allowing them to do so could give them the power to deny other treatments they disagree with. Employers should not be able to pick and choose what kind of medical care their employees can have. Conservatives constantly claim that they want to get government out of our private lives. Apparently, they’re totally fine with corporations invading them, and they want to abuse the First Amendment to let them do it.